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What's up folks? If you were at the VFX Festival, you may have seen me, sitting at the back of every talk, splitting my time between attentively heeding every word spoken by our expert speakers, and tapping away on a tablet screen. If you didn't make the Festival then you no doubt would've een the result of my incessant tapping in the form of Tweets and Instagram posts, I hope said posts did indeed convey how absolutely killer those three days really were. It'd be impossible for me to cover everything I saw in a mere blog post, so here's a highlight or two from day one that I'm sure will paint a picture for those who couldn't make it...

It’s hard to conceive, now, of the time when film production and visual effects were an American concern. Not much over a decade ago the majority of big blockbusters shot in and around LA, and effects houses in Malibu or the Presidio gave them their visual oomph. But things have swung so fast and so decidedly towards the UK that it now feels almost quaint to see a film made in the US. Next year’s biggest films – Avengers, Star Wars, Bond, Mission: Impossible – are all based here in Blighty, and more are queuing behind them.

If you managed to get a VFX Festival ticket before they sold out, then you'll more than likely be aware that we've got Jan Fiedler of Pixomondo flying to London to speak at the event, and it's going to be totally awesome.

You’ve been talking about it, your friends have been talking about it, your friends’ friends have been talking about it, hell I even heard the milkman talking about it the other day, and now the date is finally here. That’s right, it’s time for you to start preparing for the VFX Festival 2015.

Anita, Vania and I were at VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy last week, and on Wednesday I hosted a NUKE Taster day style workshop for a packed house of 35 students. Most attendees came from 3 surrounding animation art schools within the arts centre in central Turin. After the session I had lunch with some of them and discovered that in their foundation year they are learning traditional animation, 3D and filmmaking, then specialising afterwards in 2D or 3D animation for their final project.

Whether you’re a seasoned VFX pro or just entering the industry, it’s highly likely that you would’ve seen and enjoyed the work of Paul Franklin, in fact considering the insane projects he’s been involved with, this blog doesn’t take much writing, so I’ll keep things short and sweet.

Compositing Master and long-time friend of Escape Victor Perez, has recently taken a new direction within his artistic career, and after years in the VFX biz, is taking the skills that he has accrued supervising on some huge projects (you may have seen his story on our Escape & Enter site) into the field of film Directing, and at the moment is embroiled in some pretty exciting projects.

"Filmed on location within Tavares Bastos favela, Santa Teresa and The Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The BBC World Cup 2014 titles visual effects were created by GeeFX Studios. The entire piece was done at 6k resolution, filmed with a Red Epic Dragon. Although only broadcast by the BBC in HD, you can view a 4K version on the RED youtube channel above. In conjunction with The Sex Pixels, Unlimited VFX Limited brought to life the statue of Brazil’s 1958 world cup winning captain, Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini, The Macarana stadium entrance and Brazillian sky were also augmented for dramatic effect.

During my five days at SIGGRAPH, one of the escapees i happened to bump into was Iveth Bueno, from my Compositing for Visual Effects class in 2013, she kindly wrote a blog for us about her experience as a SIGGRAPH 2014 volunteer!

You may have read that our main man Ash Miles was invited to the private cast and crew screening of Guardians of the Galaxy last weekend, and went along with a number of Escape graduates from MPC who worked on the project. His blog about it got us so excited that we had to get in touch with Adam Dewhirst, escapee and advisory board member who happened to be Framestore's Lead Modeller on the film, to ask a few questions, he was careful not to discuss any spoilers with us so read all about the project below in peace, and discover what it’s like to work on what is soon to be a truly iconic motion picture.

Hello folks, it's been a while hasn't it? Seems like an age since I last clamoured around the blogosphere. Well, here I am, making a triumphant return for your pleasure and amusement to talk once again about the amazing online show - RWBY!

Those of you who are fans of the cult TV show ‘The Mighty Boosh’ will have a kind of insta-appreciation for this new independent game ‘Hohokum’, which pays homage to the semi-fantastical comedy in the name of its main character ‘The Long Mover’.

With ‘The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ having hit cinemas on the 17th of July we reckon a fair portion of you guys went to see it over the weekend, so we’re keeping an eye out for your informed opinions, especially as the murmurings in the online world are implying an Oscar victory for the movie at this year’s academy awards.